How to Cook Butternut Squash

Butternut squash, that staple of autumn cooking, lends itself to any number of cooking methods. If you're looking for a recipe for how to cook butternut squash that is both easy to prepare and out-of-this-world delicious, try this roasted version. Roasting the squash intensifies its flavors and highlights the buttery, nutty undertones that give this large winter squash its name.
If the idea of peeling and cutting a butternut squash seems daunting, you can often find fresh, cubed butternut at the grocery store or supermarket. The freezer section should also have frozen cubed butternut squash, and in most recipes, including this one, the frozen variety will work just fine.

Hi, I'm Miranda with recipe.com, and today, I'm gonna show
how to make basic roasted butternut squash. So, this is
such a tasty, tasty side dish and if you're used
to cooking with potatoes, considering mixing it up a little
bit with the bright and colorful butternut squash. So, we've
our ingredients all laid up here. We have 1 pound
of peeled and chopped butternut squash and into this nice
little like 3/4 of an inch to an inch cube.
Now, I purchased mine already pre peeled and cubed, but
it's just easy and saves a little bit of time,
but if you're doing it at home, all you'll need
to do I just peel it with a vegetable peeler.
You'll cut it in half, lengthwise, scoop out those seeds,
and then chop it on up, but you wanna skip
that part and save a little time, you do as
I did and just buy the pre cubed. Then we
also have just a little squeeze of lemon juice that's
optional in this recipe and also just a little dash
of pepper. We have half of the teaspoon of the
kosher salt, and you can increase that to taste if
you want, and then we have 2 to 3 tablespoons
of olive oil. I started with 2. We just want
to give it a nice coat here because we don't
want it to dry out. If we have to add
a little bit more, we can certainly do that. Here
I have a lovely little baking sheet lined with parchment
paper. My oven is preheated behind me at 475 degrees.
So what I'm gonna start to do is combine our
cubed butternut squash here in this medium sized bowl, just
drizzle in olive oil, and again we just wanted enough
to coat so you don't have to use to 2
tablespoons, don't, and at least just check it out and
see how it's doing, looks good, and because the butternut
squash is always a little bit wet you'll notice that
especially when you're peeling it will go a little bit
slippery, almost like sweat that's kind of how it feels,
it will obviously look glistening, so you may wanna use
a little bit more olive oil, I mean, like on
the safe side just to make sure that it's getting
nice and olive oily good, put in our salt, our
lemon juice, and our pepper. Cut out the pepper, and
just give another little toss here in this bowl and
if you find that your vegetables you're using and they
dry out, you can always drizzle them with a little
bit of olive oil at the end and sort pretty
sound like [unk]. You don't have to be stuck with
dry vegetables. Don't you worry about that. Alright, let's pop
it on our parchment lined sheet here, and we're just
gonna evenly spread this out. You want everything to be
able to evenly cooked. If it's all piled like this,
Our little guys in the middle will gonna have a
harder time. If want them to get kind of golden
brown roasted, you really wanted to spread it out for
easy roasting. How's a quick note. The rack in the
oven I've moved it right in the center. So you
want it to be in the center when you're roasting,
so everything can cook nicely and easily. Okay, I'm gonna
pop it in, and I'm gonna cook it for 15
minutes on this one side, then I'm gonna go in
there and kind of flip them all over, and then
cook for an additional 10 to 15 minutes until nice
and tender and a little bit crispy, so we'll come
back then. Okay, so my butter squash is roasted for
20 minutes, look how gorgeous it is. It's still like
nice and soft on the inside, but we have that
like crunchy golden brown yumminess on the outside. This is
the part now remember that lemon juice is optional. If
you want it added in, which I think will give
it a nice little zing. We're just gonna drizzle on
top now, just a little drizzle, and then I know
we already put some salt and pepper in, but we're
gonna do a little bit more to taste. So, you
know, if really like salt, you might wanna do a
little bit more. If you don't, you can leave it
out. It's always a thing, you know, when doing you
need to taste it to your taste and just remember
it's a lot easy to add more in, but you
can't really take any out. So just sort of consider
that. We're gonna have it one nice little toss, and
if you wanted to like adjust this up a little
bit, you can toss it now in some, you know,
sort of like flavored butter, like a melter butter on
top and a flavored sea salt. You could eat it
as is in a side dish, put some pasta. There
are so many things you can do. Just so simple
to make, nutritious, absolutely delicious, tons and tons of uses,
that's how you make basic roasted butternut squash. Thanks for
watching and for more great recipes and savings, visit us
at recipe.com.

What You'll Need

1 pound butternut squash, peeled and cut into 3/4- to 1-inch pieces

1 - 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt; more to taste

Freshly ground black pepper

Fresh lemon juice (optional)

Step By Step

1

Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 475 degrees F. Line a heavy-duty rimmed baking sheet with parchment. In a medium bowl, toss the butternut squash with enough of the olive oil to coat generously, the salt, and a few grinds of pepper.

2

Turn the butternut squash out onto the baking sheet and arrange the pieces so that they are evenly spaced and lying on a cut side. If the pieces cover the baking sheet sparsely, arrange them toward the edges of the baking sheet for the best browning. Roast until the squash is browned on bottom, 15 minutes. Flip and roast until tender, 5 to 10 minutes.

3

Return the butternut squash to the bowl in which you tossed it with the oil, or put it in a clean serving bowl. If the squash seems a bit dry, drizzle it with a little oil. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and lemon juice, if using.

If you have children who eye new vegetables with suspicion, try drizzling a few drops of maple syrup on top of the cooked squash. A bit of sweetness can help children learn to appreciate the flavor of butternut squash. Cutting the squash into the size and shape of French fries before roasting might also entice children to try this healthy, nutritious vegetable.

You can add to this basic recipe in multiple ways. Toss the butternut squash cubes with your favorite herbs and spices before roasting, or dress the roasted butternut squash with seasoned butters or a dusting of finely chopped pecans for crunch.

There's no lack of methods for how to cook butternut squash, but sometimes the simplest is the best. Roasting the squash and then serving it with a hint of lemon is a universally loved way to prepare butternut squash, and the best part is that it's so easy to do.

Hint: Take a slice off the bottom of the squash before peeling. That will keep it from rocking allowing you to peel and chop it easier and safely.